4th Sunday Singing

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Twelve churches in our county have a monthly tradition we call the 4th Sunday Singing. Each participating church has its own month. May is our church’s month. Yesterday Mother, Ray, and I slipped into the pew beside our daughter Mary Evelyn and her family for the the 2018 4th Sunday in May Singing.

In the early spring of 1956, Therold Richardson had the 4th Sunday singing idea. Several Christians got together to discuss his proposal. They decided to wait until the weather was better before having the first one. They chose the month of May and they chose our church as the first location. Since we are centrally located and the county seat, it was a good place to start.

The 4th Sunday singing has happened twelve months a year every year since 1956. Yesterday was the 63rd anniversary of the inaugural singing.  John Richard Fox, one of our elders whom I have written about before, welcomed everyone. He read off the names of the churches who participated in 1956 and the name of the person who served as organizer at each church. I recognized several last names that have become familiar to me since we moved here in 2004.

Later in the afternoon, I realized that some of those people who served as organizers in 1956 were probably the grandparents of people who participated yesterday. And many of those who participated yesterday are now grandparents and great-grandparents themselves.

I love that the chain has remained unbroken for 62 years. Christians in our county have had special times for praising God in song 745 times for two reasons: people were willing to start it and generations have been willing to keep it going.

A funny thing happened on our pew yesterday. Several men, including my husband Ray and our son-in-law Nate, took turns leading a couple of songs. I did not know the gentleman who led the first song, which was three verses of “Jesus Loves Me.” He started it much lower than I am used to. Mary Evelyn and I started out an octave higher without even realizing it. However, I got into big trouble when I got to a certain high note and let out a very high and quite audible squeak.

My next mistake was to glance down the pew at Mary Evelyn, who completely lost it when she heard me squeak. Mary Evelyn is notorious in our family for getting tickled and not being able to stop laughing. She is hilarious when she does that and her hilarity is infectious. I am notorious for the same thing. So here we were mother and daughter laughing silently, shoulders shaking, red-faced and with tears — both trying desperately to stop, while the congregation sang on!

Well, at least we were singing with joy!

O satisfy us in the morning
with Your lovingkindness,
That we may sing for joy
and be glad all our days.
Psalm 90:14

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